How would your life change if you didn’t have access to a shower?
Roughly half a million US citizens are currently un-housed, meaning their access to getting clean and, more importantly, their ability to prepare mentally and physically to be their best selves during the day, is limited.
Right to Shower, a social initiative and personal hygiene brand formed within Unilever, aims to change that by donating 100% of its profits in its first year to charities that help the homeless. The company has teamed up with San Francisco–based Lava Mae, which provides mobile shower and toilet units as well as Pop-Up Care Villages that provide food, clothing, medical care, and even haircuts.
The name Right to Shower is the logical conclusion of the slow but steady intertwining of brands and causes—and in this case, the name is more descriptive of the cause than even the product.
And the name works! It is simple but assertive, stating its purpose exactly in its multi-word construction. This easy confidence reflects passion for the cause—and passion lends itself perfectly to the brand from a consumer perspective as well.
The names of its hygiene products—Dignity, Hope, Joy, and Strength—work too, and their direct, aspirational quality is on brand with the company name. It’s actually pretty tricky to be this explicitly aspirational without sounding forced or hokey, but for a product that can make you feel good (and smell good), the direct approach is just right.
Right to Shower and the product names appeal to both people who bathe and who want their spending to do more than buy stuff. You can get yourself, and your conscience, a little cleaner.
My partner has not yet agreed that everyone has a right to sing in the shower. We’re working on that. But this product has clearly raised awareness about the often overlooked but very important right that people should have a place to get clean.
